Taste of gold for mocha | Clarence Valley Food | Wineries and Restaurants in Clarence Valley

AFTER spending nine years learning the art of roasting coffee, Richard St John has finally struck gold.

The coffee grower from Mullaway has out-roasted 330 coffee roasters from around Australia to win one of seven coveted gold medals at the biggest coffee competition in the Southern Hemisphere, the Golden Bean Roaster competition.

Richard sees the win as recognition that his coffee roasting skills and instincts were on the right track.

“The only way to gauge how you’re going as a roaster is to enter competitions,” Richard said.

“So now I know what a cup of gold coffee tastes like and I know I can make it again.”

Under the brand North Coast Coffee Roasters, Richard and fellow coffee connoisseur David Bullock, of Coffs Harbour, entered a range of coffee beans into five categories of the Golden Bean.

Four were tried and tested but the fifth blend was an unsampled experiment.

“I hadn’t even tasted it because it was so fresh so I just sent it off and hoped for the best,” Richard said.

“A few days later when I tasted it, I knew straight away it was going to win something.”

Richard said the coffee, a secret blend of Indonesian and African beans, was better than anything he’d ever roasted before.

And it appeared the judges agreed, awarding North Coast Coffee Roasters a gold for their retail filter ‘mocha’ blend.

The award-winning coffee can be sampled at the weekly Coffs Harbour farmers market and the monthly markets at Yamba, Woolgoolga and Bellingen.